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Iraq Militant Group Says It Has Killed Russian Hostages
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 5: Russia-Former Soviet Union
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Page 4: Opinion
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Judge Spares Life of Lewis the Cat
A state judge on Tuesday spared the life of Lewis the cat, whose vicious attacks on neighbors landed his owner in court, but the terrorizing tomcat was ordered confined to the house at all times. "There are no exceptions. None," Judge Patrick Carroll told Lewis' owner, Ruth Cisero.

If Lewis gets out, even accidentally, Cisero could face up to 6 months in prison, and Lewis' fate would be in the hands of animal control officers.

Cisero had faced a charge of reckless endangerment because neighbors complained that the gray and white cat's long claws and stealth had allowed it to attack at least a half-dozen people. Some who were bitten and scratched ended up seeking treatment at hospitals. The judge ordered Cisero to complete two years of probation, after which her record will be expunged.

Cisero had fought to keep Lewis, and rejected a previous probation deal because it was contingent on euthanizing the cat. "I never thought it would come to this," she said. "It's been an absolute nightmare. It's ruined my life."

The cat's case has drawn national attention, with Lewis appearing in People magazine and on his own page on MySpace.com. A Utah animal sanctuary offered to take the cat, but Eugene Riccio, Cisero's attorney, said Lewis enjoys life in southern New England and wants to stay.
Posted by: Steve || 06/21/2006 09:57 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A pic of Lewis, forced to stay at home...

Posted by: anonymous5089 || 06/21/2006 11:40 Comments || Top||

#2  Lol. Something useful to do and right up the ACLU's "alley", lol.

Free Lewis!
Posted by: Omirong Snumble8439 || 06/21/2006 11:57 Comments || Top||

#3  If you thought Lewis was a badass cat, wait until the neiborhood meets Bubba, his cousin...
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 06/21/2006 12:00 Comments || Top||

#4  Lol - Brave woman!
Posted by: Omirong Snumble8439 || 06/21/2006 12:12 Comments || Top||

#5  Cat - the other white meat.
Posted by: Cheagum Cleatch4688 || 06/21/2006 12:22 Comments || Top||

#6  If you like cats, and you like Chinese food, DO NOT click on this link.

Beware!
Posted by: gromky || 06/21/2006 13:18 Comments || Top||

#7  OK, Lewis, behave yourself and stay in the house or you're shipping out to Guangdong.
Posted by: GK || 06/21/2006 13:28 Comments || Top||

#8  Now THAT is one big cat!
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/21/2006 13:30 Comments || Top||

#9  Now THAT is one big cat!

Looks like a Maine Coon Cat. Kind of cat that sits on the front porch calling, "Here, doggy, doggy!"
Posted by: Steve || 06/21/2006 13:37 Comments || Top||

#10  My grandfather used to eat cats during WWII, meat tastes a lot like rabbit I'm told, and looks a lot like it too once cooked (cats have flat ribs, while rabbits have round ones, or the other way around).
Also, one of my ex-coworkers' father supposedly had his guest unwittingly eat cat at a dinner, showed them the head afterward to startle them.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 06/21/2006 14:14 Comments || Top||

#11  5089 did you inherit the pictures? Do you have the white pony in the car and fluffy destroyer of worlds?

BTW the orange is maybe a MCC but mostly it's hugely forshortened.
Posted by: 6 || 06/21/2006 17:03 Comments || Top||

#12  why do I think that the final chapter of Lewis The Cat has not yet been written?
Posted by: 2b || 06/21/2006 17:15 Comments || Top||

#13  Kind of cat that sits on the front porch calling, "Here, doggy, doggy!"

And the cat doesn't have fighting in mind.
Posted by: Zenster || 06/21/2006 21:08 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
Another Ward Churchill?
The slight figure in neon orange moccasins beats a hide drum cradled in his arms. His voice soars in the cavernous auditorium as he spins the tale of Dashkayah, a huge, hairy creature who hunts and devours children in the night. Only when the cannibal's young victims face their fears will they escape her clutches.

"Ana kush iwasha: This is the way it was," says Terry Tafoya, known across the U.S. and Canada as a pre-eminent American Indian psychologist from Seattle.

Monsters don't steal our kids today, he tells the crowd. Addictions do, the streets do. And storytelling helps reclaim them. "A story becomes a script for how to live your life," Tafoya tells the school counselors, nurses and social workers at a state-sponsored event April 20.

The earnest crowd is captivated by the 54-year-old raconteur, introduced as "Dr. Tafoya," a man whose graying temples and reading glasses contrast with his waist-length, crow-black braids.

What no one suspects is that Tafoya has scripted his own life, embellishing his academic credentials and past. The storyteller has worked his magic, turning nuggets of truth into pots of gold...
(more at link)
Posted by: Anonymoose || 06/21/2006 09:38 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It's the multiculturalists who enable charletans like this guy: His cultural heritage rather than who he actually is.
Posted by: badanov || 06/21/2006 10:23 Comments || Top||

#2  Social Snake oil
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 06/21/2006 12:06 Comments || Top||

#3  Fake but accurate.
Posted by: gromky || 06/21/2006 13:08 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Ron Dellums, Oakland mayor-elect
An ebullient Oakland Mayor-elect Ron Dellums promised Monday to seek a broad consensus to fulfill his vision for making the city a model, saying he will soon set up citizen groups to help him deal with the public schools, crime and economic development when he takes office Jan. 1. "It is a responsibility I accept with honor, humility and optimism," the progressive former congressman, 70, said in his first public remarks since the June 6 election. "We can solve the problems of Oakland. We can be a great city."
I guess Oakland has become the Elephants' Graveyard for washed-up Dem politicians...
On Saturday, his chief opponent in the race -- City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente -- congratulated Dellums, who won 50.18 percent of the vote. De La Fuente won the support of 32.99 percent of 83,675 total votes cast, followed by City Councilwoman Nancy Nadel and three other candidates. The race took nearly two weeks to decide because thousands of ballots were not counted on election day and Dellums had remained just below the threshold needed to win without a November runoff. Dellums said he had remained confident he would win outright, despite the nail-biting count of absentee and provisional ballots. "I was the calmest person in Oakland these last 10 days," Dellums said. He will succeed two-term Mayor Jerry Brown, who is running for state attorney general. The two men are scheduled to speak by phone today and meet next week.
Posted by: Fred || 06/21/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I remember back when Dellums was in Congress; he was such a moonbat that the Republicans basically threatened to shut the House down if Dellums made it onto any committee even remotely associated with defense or intelligence, mostly because they were convinced that he'd tell everything he knew to Mother Jones at the first opportunity.
Posted by: Jonathan || 06/21/2006 0:10 Comments || Top||

#2  jeese - I'd never have thought that California would become more corrupt and screwed up than just about anywhere else besides Massachusetts. Such a pity.
Posted by: 2b || 06/21/2006 0:37 Comments || Top||

#3  He didn't get the nickname Ron "Red" Dellums for nothing - and it wasn't for voting Republican...

Posted by: FOTSGreg || 06/21/2006 3:00 Comments || Top||

#4  Dellums would brag about being the only "Marxist" in Congress. Actually, he wasn't alone.

And Oaklanders wonder why they are looked on as San Fran's retarded sister.
Posted by: Shurt Angaimble9728 || 06/21/2006 4:22 Comments || Top||

#5  Oakland's sister city New Orleans, must be green with envy.
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/21/2006 8:39 Comments || Top||

#6  Seems like in a democracy - you get the government you deserve.
Posted by: Leigh || 06/21/2006 21:17 Comments || Top||

#7  Ahh! People's Committees = Problem Solvers
Posted by: Janos Hunyadi || 06/21/2006 23:53 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Frustrated Jihadi on the Island?
He shouted "I'll kill you all!" before driving into a group of people. All that's missing is the "Allan Akbar!"
GLEN COVE, NY (UPI) -- A Virginia teen has been charged with driving his car into a crowd of people outside a bar that had just evicted him in a wealthy part of Long Island, N.Y. Sayed Khaled El-Waraky, 19, of Vienna, Va., was being held without bond Tuesday after the incident early Sunday morning in Glen Cove.

Witnesses told police El-Waraky created a disturbance in the bar, and then threatened the bouncer, who threw him out, the New York Post reported. While getting into his Jaguar, the teen allegedly yelled 'I`ll kill you all,' before heading for the exit and suddenly making a U-turn. Four men in their early 20`s were struck. Monday, one was on a respirator, a second was in a medically induced coma, and the other two were hospitalized with head injuries and fractures, the report said.

El-Waraky`s attorney, Ryan Brownyard told Newsday his client was reacting to 'a mob' that struck him, followed him outside and pounded on the Jaguar. El-Waraky has pleaded innocent to all charges, including depraved indifference for human life, but If convicted could face 25 years to life in prison.
Posted by: Tibor || 06/21/2006 01:40 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  He shouted "I'll kill you all!" before driving into a group of people. All that's missing is the "Allan Akbar!"

I wouldn't count it out. He was a victom according to his attorney.
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/21/2006 8:47 Comments || Top||

#2  Some additional from Newsday June 19th.

"It was not clear what El-Waraky, an Egyptian national who police said was a student at American University in Washington, D.C., was doing on Long Island. Nassau police said El-Waraky, 24, had a previous DWI conviction in Virginia in 2003."
Posted by: DanNY || 06/21/2006 8:59 Comments || Top||

#3  Is he 19 or 24???

If he was 19 - he shouldn't have been in the bar.

If I could, I'd tack on a hate crime charge.
Posted by: anonymous2u || 06/21/2006 9:22 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Another tragic victim of Bush Derangement Syndrome feels his depression
The President spoke at the graduation ceremony for the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. Afterward, one of the graduates gave the President a big bear hug. There was a nice photo run by one of the wire services.

All this was too much for "playwright and sometime actor" Chris Durang, who writes at the Puffington Host the Huffasuffaluffagus Post that group blog that wierd Greek Zsa-Zsa imitator from California founded:

Playwright and sometime actor? Translation -- he's unemployed!
Some people sure can be happy. The young man in the picture above lives in an alternative universe from me, clearly. Upon his graduation from Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, N.Y, he was overcome with an irresistible desire to hug President Bush. . . . this young man is just SO HAPPY to see the President, I felt like I was looking at an alien creature. . . . His view of the President is so different than mine -- is the young man not too smart? does he not read the newspaper? is it exciting to see a President no matter what? does he only listen to Fox News? does he feel the President is protectng us all? But he sure does look happy.

That's all. Just felt struck and ... confused by the photo. Time to take my antidepressant. (That's a joke. I don't take one. I'm willing to FEEL my depression.)
Bush Derangement Syndrome. It's a debilitating mental illness that destroys thousands of lives every year. Its victims suffer from high blood pressure and clinical depression, and find themselves doing wierd and self-destructive things out in public where they embarass family and friends and frighten the horses.

Fortunately, there is hope. If you, or someone you know, suffers from BDS, the Rantburg Chapter of Moonbats Anonymous wants you to know that there is a twelve-step program to restore your sanity. We meet every night at the pistol range, just across the street from the Army of Steve Headquarters in beautiful downtown Rantburg. Won't you join us?
Posted by: Mike || 06/21/2006 17:02 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  No wonder this talented "writer" (see his brilliant work on IMDB) is so depressed. The graduate he's busy slamming is going to get a job that pays much better than anything he's done lately.
Posted by: Desert Blondie || 06/21/2006 17:41 Comments || Top||

#2  and the grad will get the pretty girls too! All that our poor depressed girly boy will get are those angry post-menopausal women who share his love hate for Bush.
Posted by: 2b || 06/21/2006 17:49 Comments || Top||

#3  According to IMDB:

Was nominated for Broadway's 1978 Tony Award as Best Book (Musical) for "A History of the American Film."

That and his starring role in two different episodes of Frasier appear to be the high points of his career.
Posted by: Mike || 06/21/2006 17:52 Comments || Top||

#4  Clearly the writer was not a comedian because that picture of Bush and the hugger guy is calling out for jokes.

Bush looks like he's doing a Frankenstein impression and trying to stop the kid from getting to the keg.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 06/21/2006 18:04 Comments || Top||

#5  I enjoy the angst and moral/elitist superiority from the unknown "famous" people Arianna sucks off of like a lamprey keeps in her liberal "posse" LOL. All the GOP has to do is publish the Huffinpost's sneering comments to get the votes of the rest of America that's alienated
Posted by: Frank G || 06/21/2006 19:53 Comments || Top||

#6  That and his starring role in two different episodes of Frasier appear to be the high points of his career.

Don't forget Tales from the Crypt: The TV Series!
Posted by: Secret Master || 06/21/2006 20:49 Comments || Top||


Home Front Economy
Southern San Andreas fault waiting to explode
LONDON (Reuters) - The southern end of the San Andreas fault near Los Angeles, which has been still for more than two centuries, is under immense stress and could produce a massive earthquake at any moment, a scientist said on Wednesday.
Yuri Fialko, of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at La Jolla, California, said that given average annual movement rates in other areas of the fault, there could be enough pent-up energy in the southern end to trigger a cataclysmic jolt of up to 10 meters (32 ft). "The observed strain rates confirm that the southern section of the San Andreas fault may be approaching the end of the interseismic phase of the earthquake cycle," he wrote in the science journal Nature. Translation: "She's getting ready to pop"
A sudden lateral movement of 7 to 10 meters would be among the largest ever recorded. According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the earthquake that destroyed San Francisco in 1906 was produced by a sudden movement of the northern end of the fault of up to 21 ft.

Fialko said there had been no recorded movement at the southern end of the fault -- the 800-mile long geological meeting point of the Pacific and the North American tectonic plates -- since the dawn of European settlement in the area. He said this lack of movement for 250 years correlated with the predicted gaps between major earthquakes at the southern end of the fault of between 200 and 300 years.

Elsewhere on the fault, there were average slippage rates up to a couple of centimeters a year that prevented the build-up of explosive pressure deep underground. When these became blocked and then suddenly broke free they produced tremors or earthquakes of varying intensity depending on the movement that had taken place before and the duration of the blockage. USGS says the most recent major earthquakes in the northern and central zones of the San Andreas fault were in 1857 and 1906.

Fialko said there were three possible explanations for the lack of observed movement in the southern section -- creepage under the surface that had no external manifestation, that it simply might not move as much as the rest or a major blockage. "Except for the first possibility above, the continued quiescence increases the likelihood of a future event," he wrote. Making calculations based on a wide range of land and satellite observations, he discounted the idea of creepage and warned of impending disaster. "Regardless of fault geometry and mechanical properties of the ambient crust, results presented in this study lend support to intermediate-term forecasts of a high probability of major earthquakes on the southern SAF system," Fialko said.
Posted by: Steve || 06/21/2006 14:20 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  See you down in Arizona Bay?
Posted by: Xbalanke || 06/21/2006 16:05 Comments || Top||

#2  results presented in this study lend support to intermediate-term forecasts of a high probability of major earthquakes on the southern SAF system," Fialko said.

Golly! Where do I sign up to make money on this type of keen and blinding insight? Did we actually waste tax dollars on this? A Master of the Obvious graphic seems sooo appropriate here.
Posted by: 2b || 06/21/2006 17:23 Comments || Top||

#3  Is this on Intrade?
Posted by: anonymous2u || 06/21/2006 18:20 Comments || Top||

#4  San Diego County is relatively clean, but Inland Empire and LA could take a huge hit. Expect to hear an anecdote from Alaska Paul about Park City if he's reading.... it's a good one
Posted by: Frank G || 06/21/2006 20:38 Comments || Top||

#5  The Earth's gonna eat us alive!
Posted by: Al Gore || 06/21/2006 21:47 Comments || Top||

#6  Just as the muzzies haven't figured out that Allen is indeed in the game, but is using the Americans to clean up their mess, the Enviros haven't figured out that Mother Gaia is also out there and doesn't think that man is something separate from nature. She is about the send the tree hugging, granola chewing, red/greens a message as well.

Hey whatcha say,
There goes LA.
Hey whatch know,
Tie up the boat in Idaho.
Posted by: Slineger Flaique8971 || 06/21/2006 22:16 Comments || Top||

#7  I live east of San Diego. Ima hoping for oceanfront property....gotta make the best of the worst, eh?
Posted by: Frank G || 06/21/2006 23:17 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
'Triangle of death' claims another life
Or, "Tales from the Crossfire Central City Gazette"
In the short, brutal life of Michael Mack, there was no cavalry. People who knew him said no infusion of soldiers or cops could have saved him from a bad end. That end came swiftly Tuesday morning. By the time 100 National Guard soldiers and 50 State Police troopers descended on violence-rattled New Orleans, Mack already was zipped up in a body bag, gunned down in a double shooting just blocks from where five teenagers were killed Saturday. Tuesday's shooting left another man clinging to life.

Mack, 22, was found dead inside a dilapidated second-story apartment at Thalia and Saratoga streets in a shooting reported by neighbors at 7:25 a.m. The second victim, Raymond Frith, 21, was listed in critical condition at a local hospital with several bullet wounds, police said. The shooting took place half a dozen blocks from Saturday's quintuple massacre, a crime that put much of the city on razor's edge, even with Tuesday's deployment of federal and state patrols.

"It's the triangle of death right now," Mack's attorney, Gary Bizal, said of the violence-saturated pocket of Central City where the shootings took place. "I told this guy a long time ago to get out of the area. I was concerned for his safety. There was too much stuff going on around him and too much going on in the neighborhood." Of this year's 54 murders, 14 have taken place in Central City, a triangle-shaped area bounded by Louisiana Avenue, Earhart Boulevard and St. Charles Avenue. The five victims gunned down Saturday were not suspects in any of those slayings, but they were implicated in earlier crimes, including a gun-related offense in Jefferson Parish in 2004.

Capt. Bob Bardy, commander of the 6th District where six of the city's last seven victims were killed, said that despite the ultra-violent four-day stretch in his district, crime is not spiking. In fact, it had been relatively quiet before Saturday's bloodbath, he said. Since the killings, though, Bardy said he has tried to boost the morale of his officers, urging them to fight the good fight alongside community leaders.

"I was really concerned with the emotional balance of the officers," Bardy said. "I like to see my guys do a better job than anyone else, but I understand they are going through a lot of pressure right now. I keep telling them, don't make this into what some of the media is making it out to be. It is not a spike in crime and you guys are doing a good job."

As for arresting the person responsible for Mack's killing, Bardy said homicide detectives are making progress. The Crimestoppers confidential tip-line has been humming, he said, and street informants have been helpful. "I think we are well on our way with that one," Bardy said. "I know for a fact that we know who the (suspect) was today and there probably is a warrant being signed as we speak."

Few people were surprised by Mack's death. Not his family. Not his attorney. Not the police. After racking up six juvenile convictions -- including one for murder at age 13 that kept him locked up until he was 21 -- Mack returned to the streets after Hurricane Katrina and was arrested three times on drug charges, court records show. In January, he was booked with cocaine and marijuana possession in a case in which New Orleans police were assisted by agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration. In March, he was booked with possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. In April, he was booked with distribution of prescription pills. "He was a well-known Central City dope peddler," said local DEA Chief William Renton. "He had been on DEA radar since 1997."

After each of Mack's recent arrests, he was released after making bail, court records show. And each time, the bail amount decreased, records show: from $35,000 in January, to $10,000 March, to $5,000 in April. The details of those bail arrangements were not available Tuesday. "The Police Department is feeding cases into the system, but the district attorney and courts aren't functioning," said Rafael Goyeneche, president of the nonprofit Metropolitan Crime Commission. "I think New Orleans is teetering right now. And the decisions that are being made about crime right now are just as important as flood protection."
Ya know, this is beginning to sound a lot like a story from the "Crossfire Gazette". All that's missing is a shutter gun at Mack's feet.

Mack was a familiar -- and feared -- figure on his home turf. In 1997, he was described by prosecutors as a "one-man crime wave" after his string of preteen convictions was capped by the juvenile murder conviction. In that case, Mack was found guilty of following a couple to an apartment on Baronne Street, forcing them to their knees in a robbery, then shooting the man in the head when he didn't cough up enough money. That 1997 murder in the 1400 block of Baronne Street was a stone's throw from where Mack was killed Tuesday. And the scene of Mack's killing is about seven blocks from the corner of Danneel and Josephine streets, where the five teens were cut down Saturday about 4 a.m.

Clarence Joseph, 73, a resident of the area for 50 years, tried to wrap his head around the violence Tuesday as he sat on one of the neighborhood's well-worn stoops. "I'm 73 years old and ain't never known nothing to happen like that," Joseph said, removing a straw hat he had tilted over his brow. "Never known nothing like that except for in a war. Five at one time."

The victims -- brothers Arsenio and Markee Hunter, ages 16 and 19; Warren Simeon, 17; Iraum Taylor, 19; and Reggie Dantzler, 19 -- were friends who frequented their old stomping grounds in Central City, even after they began shuffling between New Orleans and Jefferson Parish in 2004. Taylor was a cousin of the Hunters. Police said the five ran tight, and careened together into trouble. Lt. Mike Alwert of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office said the five dead teens were implicated in a gun-related crime in 2004, although he said he could not elaborate because of their ages.
So much for the "innocent teenagers" meme in the MSM

More recently though, detectives said they linked Simeon, the Hunter brothers and two other teens to a drive-by shooting May 1 in Jefferson Parish. The shooting was off the mark and did nothing more than shatter windows. Charges of aggravated assault and gun possession were dropped when the uninjured targets refused to talk, New Orleans police said.
Gee, I wonder why?
Investigators are now trying to determine if those would-be victims were involved in Saturday's ambush. New Orleans Police Superintendent Warren Riley said the massacre clearly was an act of vengeance.

Whatever the case, the Rev. Toris Young, an Uptown pastor who is counseling the families of the Central City victims, said he is bracing for the cycle of violence to continue. "Now we have to watch out for another knucklehead that is going to try and catch up with the people who killed those boys," Young said. "They'll get it in their minds that 'I'm going to get them back, that I'm going to find them and spray the whole house and everyone inside.' They'll get it in their minds that they got to die."
Posted by: Steve || 06/21/2006 12:59 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Remember last year, during the hurricane, how the Superdome was a hell-hole of lawlessness and the gangs were shooting at Coast Guard rescue helicopters? All those lurid tales that turned out not to be true?

This kind of sounds like deja vu all over again.
Posted by: Mike || 06/21/2006 13:41 Comments || Top||

#2  Will the senate offer a bill establishing a timetable for us to pull out of New Orleans?
Posted by: Cowboy is a compliment || 06/21/2006 14:35 Comments || Top||

#3  We should be "out of New Orleans" no later than the Congressional Holiday recess, or funding should be cut off to FEMA !!!!!!
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/21/2006 14:54 Comments || Top||

#4  "The guard will establish a perimeter around the French Quarter and defend it until we run out of ammo or beer, whichever comes first.

Firebase Vieux Carré, out"
Posted by: Steve || 06/21/2006 16:37 Comments || Top||

#5  Not Baronne Street!
Posted by: 6 || 06/21/2006 17:07 Comments || Top||


New York (!) named most polite city
NEW YORK - New Yorkers are a polite bunch. No, really, they are. So says Reader’s Digest.

The magazine sent reporters “undercover” to 36 cities, in 35 countries, to measure courtesy. New York was the only American city on the list. In a city with a reputation for being in-your-face, New Yorkers seem to be expressing themselves with a new one-finger salute: a raised pinkie. In fact, they seem to have even better manners than people in London, Toronto and Moscow.
Wonder how Berkeley would fare?
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he’s not surprised. He told reporters Tuesday that whenever he travels abroad, he hears nothing but praise for the Big Apple’s good manners. “We are so jaded,” he said. “We want to think the worst of ourselves, and people from around this country and around the world think exactly the reverse.”
This tracks with my experience of living in NYC for 14 years.
Posted by: Chinter Flarong9283 || 06/21/2006 07:39 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Are YOU looking at ME? I dont see anybody else here...

As long as you arent being an idiot (or a Redsox fan) NYers do treat ya pretty good.
Posted by: Oldspook || 06/21/2006 9:26 Comments || Top||

#2  I can believe NYC ranked high among world cities, but would rank near the bottom among US metros. But I quibble with their sampling. I would have guessed Japanese citizens rank the most polite, though not the most helpful.
Posted by: ed || 06/21/2006 9:49 Comments || Top||

#3  Jeez, I musta missed that part of NY.
Posted by: mojo || 06/21/2006 10:06 Comments || Top||

#4  As a resident of Manhattan, all I can say is it must be pretty rough in the other cities they surveyed.
Posted by: WhitecollarRedneck || 06/21/2006 12:09 Comments || Top||

#5  OK, how did scrappleface get onto MSNBC's server?
Posted by: Gir || 06/21/2006 13:37 Comments || Top||

#6  Having lived in both California and New York, I joke with my family about the difference in drivers on each coast. When you want to merge in NYC, people flip you the finger and swear at you, but they let you in. When you want to merge in CA, people smile at you but won't give an inch to let you merge. So maybe NYers are blunt with language and gestures, but deep down have more common sense and decency than Californians. That's my experience.
Posted by: Jules || 06/21/2006 15:26 Comments || Top||

#7  Well, if you are comparing to cities like Detroit or Philadelphia I guess it could be.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 06/21/2006 16:21 Comments || Top||

#8  Charleston
Posted by: 6 || 06/21/2006 17:09 Comments || Top||

#9  Marylanders are my personal fav. No turn indicater is too convenient to use, no space between vehicles is too small to squeeze into, no vehicle is motoring too fast to overtake, no stop sign is too red to run, no motorist is approaching to rapidly to cut off.
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/21/2006 17:12 Comments || Top||

#10  come on....!!! Just cause it's in print doesn't make it so. When you read pieces like this you can be sure it's filed under the heading "promotion".

I'm not saying that NYers are rude .... I'm just saying a little common sense is in order here.
Posted by: 2b || 06/21/2006 17:20 Comments || Top||

#11  Heh, Those of us who have been here forever, and have travelled extensively in other US cities, know this to be true.

One caveat. If you are perceived as a non-NYer you get treated better than if you seem like a native.
Posted by: DanNY || 06/21/2006 19:29 Comments || Top||

#12  It's just that New York politeness is different from other places' politeness. New York politeness is based on the principle that everyone is busy and needs to get things done. Anything that helps people get things done is good; amything that hurts is bad. All else ic commentary.

For example, spending five minutes chatting at the guy at the newsstand at 8am is bad; it blocks other people. Spending a minute at the same newsstand at 10pm is fine; after all, it gets lonely there.
Posted by: Eric Jablow || 06/21/2006 21:29 Comments || Top||


6 Killings Prompt Nagin's Call For National Guard
Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco said Monday she's sending National Guard troops to help patrol the streets of New Orleans after a request made by Mayor Ray Nagin following six weekend deaths in the storm-damaged city. Nagin made the request earlier Monday.

Outraged New Orleans city leaders also called for state police help after a special meeting to address the killings in an area near the central business district. Detectives are knocking on doors and looking for anyone with information on the killings. Five teenagers were gunned down in a blaze of semiautomatic fire early Saturday. Police said drugs or revenge are possible motives in the teens' deaths. A was man was stabbed to death in an argument over beer on Sunday. Capt. John Bryson said police have no new leads to the killers, and are "begging citizens" who may have information to call Crimestoppers.

City Council members are promising swift action against violence as the city tries to repair itself after Hurricane Katrina. Councilman Oliver Thomas said rising crime could slow both residents' return home and the return of tourism -- the city's biggest business before the hurricane.

John Gagliano, chief investigator for the Orleans Parish coroner, identified the dead to The Times- Picayune newspaper as Reggie Dantzler, Iruan Taylor and Marquis Hunter, all 19 years old; 16-year-old Arsenio Hunter, and 17-year-old Warren Simoen, all of New Orleans. Bryson said none of the victims had any convictions, and police cannot comment on whether a victim had any other police record.

National Guard troops roll into New Orleans
Posted by: Fred || 06/21/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Interesting...

5 people gunned down, drugs or "revenge" (heh) suspected. Ignore the other killing since it's just your typical alcohol event.

So, 5 people killed at once.

Is that really a Nation Guard situation?

It is if your Po-Leece Dept is probably deeply involved.

They did say drugs, right?
Posted by: Ulusing Cleash5738 || 06/21/2006 5:11 Comments || Top||

#2  So, 5 people killed at once. Is that really a Nation Guard situation?

Not if you had an effective police department. I'll wager what sent Ray into a panic was that this shooting took place in the Central Business District. Had it been out in one of the "depressed neighborhoods" it wouldn't have been as big a story.
Posted by: Steve || 06/21/2006 8:08 Comments || Top||

#3  The WHOLE STATE is OUT OF CONTROL!!!
Posted by: ARMYGUY || 06/21/2006 8:34 Comments || Top||

#4  Bryson said none of the victims had any convictions.....

.... and were all members of the same canasta club.
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/21/2006 8:37 Comments || Top||

#5  #2 - No, the shooting was not in the central business district.
Posted by: Matt || 06/21/2006 9:00 Comments || Top||

#6  The WHOLE STATE is OUT OF CONTROL!!!

Well, I didn't notice any shootings in my apartment complex last night. We have been arguing about aluminum alloy selection at work, though, if you feel like reaching.
Posted by: Phil || 06/21/2006 9:12 Comments || Top||

#7  What's the exit strategy?
Posted by: ed || 06/21/2006 9:19 Comments || Top||

#8  Ed, I do hope there is an exit strategy, as well as a timeline for pulling our troops out. I wish that Gen. Honore could be in charge of this "exercise." Also, we do need to think ahead of the outcry when the Guard actually shoots someone down there. It'll be BDS all over, but ignoring the fact that the Mayor (Democrat) asked for it and the Governor (Democrat) answered.
Posted by: BA || 06/21/2006 12:43 Comments || Top||

#9  No, the shooting was not in the central business district.


Matt, you're right. Another story I read said that's where it was. I went to NOLA.com and found the correct location.

Of this year's 54 murders, 14 have taken place in Central City, a triangle-shaped area bounded by Louisiana Avenue, Earhart Boulevard and St. Charles Avenue.
Posted by: Steve || 06/21/2006 13:30 Comments || Top||

#10  Steve, that's correct. I was in a rush and should have explained my comment. My understanding is that the NG is going to patrol other areas of the City to free up the NOPD to cover Central City and a couple of other hot spots.
Posted by: Matt || 06/21/2006 13:42 Comments || Top||

#11  Me thinks perhaps Nagin will be looking for more [federal or state] funding to 'combat' the problem.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 06/21/2006 15:53 Comments || Top||

#12  Ya know, I wasn't going to bring this up, but I think it's related. I was on the gulf coast recently for two weeks. In Bay St. Louis, Gulfport, etc, they are rapidly rebuilding. In many areas that looked like an Atomic Bomb went off just a few months ago, they now show no signs of the hurricane at all. Debris is cleaned up. Infrastructure is being rapidly repaired, etc.
Then I went to New orleans. Huge seething piles of garbage and debris are everywhere. Many residents have returned, but sit amidst the ruins instead of doing anything about them. The main attitude I saw was not one of banding together, putting the gloves on, and trying to clean up the mess. No, it was blame the government time. Many other affected areas got very little government assistance, yet they are doing the work on their own, sometimes for 12 to 16 hours a day.

The mentality of most New Orleans residents is something I cannot understand. What is it? Just sit around, point fingers at the gummint, and on Saturday night, go out and kill a few folks? I don't believe the problem is poverty. Many of the areas that I saw repaired had been predominantly 'poor'. They were poor, but not lazy.

New Orleans, get off your ass. Clean up the mess.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 06/21/2006 16:25 Comments || Top||

#13  Quote:
"The festival of inefficiency and ineptitude has finally ended, but only because now the government has stopped doing anything at all,"

Neat..sums up New Orleans..
Posted by: crazyhorse || 06/21/2006 23:48 Comments || Top||


Home Front Economy
Measles a threat to staff of Christian Science Monitor
A bit of random news from Boston: a rare case of measles was found in the Back Bay area, and an employee of the Christian Science Church was found to be exposed or infected. The Boston Public Health Commission is now asking every member of the church for proof of immunization, but, you know, Christian Scientists don’t really “do” doctors or vaccines.

Over at the otherwise lovely Christian Science Monitor, the majority of the staff hasn’t been vaccinated — and if just one staffer becomes infected, the rest of the non-immunized staff would have to be quarantined. This has editors rather concerned, as a quarantine situation would leave the paper to be run by a small handful of non-Scientist staffers and interns.

In order to prevent a journalistic catastrophe, CSM staffers have very grudgingly started to get immunizations, even though they believe that the measles threat is “not true.” Nevertheless, the Public Health threat still stands, and if one staff member gets sick, the quarantine will go into effect. For properly vaccinated editorial assistants, it could be quite the opportunity.
Posted by: Seafarious || 06/21/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Pssst, CSM staff, don't do it. Your penises and boobs will fall off.

BTW, we all just love your work, LOL.

But don't get the shots. Really.
Posted by: Ulusing Cleash5738 || 06/21/2006 0:46 Comments || Top||

#2  Had it been dysenteria we could have said that they are in real deep sh..t (apart of falling revenues)
Posted by: JFM || 06/21/2006 3:56 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Wed 2006-06-21
  Iraq Militant Group Says It Has Killed Russian Hostages
Tue 2006-06-20
  Missing soldiers found dead
Mon 2006-06-19
  Group Claims It Kidnapped U.S. Soldiers
Sun 2006-06-18
  Qaeda Cell Planned a Poison-gas Attack on the N.Y. Subway
Sat 2006-06-17
  Russers Bang Saidulayev
Fri 2006-06-16
  Sri Lanka strikes Tamil Tiger HQ
Thu 2006-06-15
  Somalia: Warlords Collapse
Wed 2006-06-14
  US, Iraqis to use tanks to secure Baghdad
Tue 2006-06-13
  Blinky's brother-in-law banged
Mon 2006-06-12
  Zark's Heir Also Killed, Jordanians Say
Sun 2006-06-11
  3 Gitmoids hanged themselves
Sat 2006-06-10
  Paleo Car Swarm for Abu Samhadana
Fri 2006-06-09
  50 dead in post-Zark boom campaign
Thu 2006-06-08
  Zark Zapped!
Wed 2006-06-07
  Iraqi army takes over from US in Anbar


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